Prevalence of the scuticociliate Orchitophrya stellarum in seastars from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

As part of a study to investigate the use of the scuticociliate Orchitophrya stellarum as a biological control for the invasive seastar Asterias amurensis in Australia, we collected prevalence data for O. stellarum from 3 seastar species (A. amurensis, A.

Lgl1 controls NG2 endocytic pathway to regulate oligodendrocyte differentiation and asymmetric cell division and gliomagenesis.

Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPC) undergo asymmetric cell division (ACD) to generate one OPC and one differentiating oligodendrocyte (OL) progeny. Loss of pro-mitotic proteoglycan and OPC marker NG2 in the OL progeny is the earliest immunophenotypic change of unknown mechanism that indicates differentiation commitment. Here, we report that expression of the mouse homolog of Drosophila tumor suppressor Lethal giant larvae 1 (Lgl1) is induced during OL differentiation.

Concurrent MEK targeted therapy prevents MAPK pathway reactivation during BRAFV600E targeted inhibition in a novel syngeneic murine glioma model.

Inhibitors of BRAFV600E kinase are currently under investigations in preclinical and clinical studies involving BRAFV600E glioma. Studies demonstrated clinical response to such individualized therapy in the majority of patients whereas in some patients tumors continue to grow despite treatment. To study resistance mechanisms, which include feedback activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling in melanoma, we developed a luciferase-modified cell line (2341luc) from a BrafV600E mutant and Cdkn2a- deficient murine high-grade glioma, and analyzed its molecular responses to BRAFV600E- and MAPK kinase (MEK)-targeted inhibition.

Probing white-matter microstructure with higher-order diffusion tensors and susceptibility tensor MRI.

Diffusion MRI has become an invaluable tool for studying white matter microstructure and brain connectivity. The emergence of quantitative susceptibility mapping and susceptibility tensor imaging (STI) has provided another unique tool for assessing the structure of white matter. In the highly ordered white matter structure, diffusion MRI measures hindered water mobility induced by various tissue and cell membranes, while susceptibility sensitizes to the molecular composition and axonal arrangement.